The auditors for the EU have refused to sign off the bloc's financial accounts - for the 13th year in a row.

A report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) criticises nearly every major area of the EU's expenditure.

The auditors say there are weaknesses across the board and complain of neglect and presumed attempts at fraud.

The European Commission has blamed member states for audit failings, and says it has suspended £1.2bn in payments to English regions.

Errors persist

Errors of legality and regularity still persist in the majority of the EU's 106bn euro annual budget (£75bn), according to the Court of Auditors. Its President, Hubert Weber, calls on the commission to lead by example in making improvements.

HEAD TO HEAD

The auditors have concluded every year since 1994 that the accounts are reliable

Terry Wynn, ex-head of European Parliament budget committee

There has been a lot of window-dressing but essentially the auditors' criticism has not changed

The report explains that much of the misspending is caused by poor knowledge of complex rules but presumes that fraud also exists.

On the plus side, the auditors say that there has been a marked reduction in the estimated overall level of error in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), responsible for some 40% of all EU expenditure.

The commission is responsible for overseeing the handling of the budget and the auditors praise the "considerable efforts" made to address the weaknesses in its management of risk to EU funding.

Payments to UK

But the second biggest slice of the budget - regional development funding (32.4bn euros in 2006) - is said to have seen little improvement. The Court estimates that at least 12% of the total paid out was affected by errors, and complains of poor control by member states.